International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has published details of computing methods and technologies that are able to assist humans with certain types of semantic query and search operations, such as the type of natural question-and-answer paradigm of a medical environment. IBM researchers scientists have been working on Deep Question-Answering (DeepQA) methods that are able to understand complex questions posed (and input) in natural language, and are able to answer the question with enough precision, confidence, and speed to augment human handling of the same questions within a given environment, such as a medical inquiry and diagnostic paradigm where time-to-answer is of the essence.
DeepQA is an application of advanced Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, and Machine Learning technologies to the field of open-domain question answering, all executing on a suitable computing platform. Such methods of hypothesis generation, evidence gathering, analysis, and scoring may be effectively executed by a wide range of computing platforms.
Similarly, IBM has also published computing methods which combine semantic elements with information search elements to form Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA), which is now maintained as an open source project by the Apache organization.
Whereas ample information is available in the public domain regarding DeepQA and UIMA, the present disclosure presumes those ordinarily skilled in the art may access and apply that information to realized embodiments of the following invention.
There is a need in the art to provide information to medical professionals based upon clues, facts, and unanswered questions in order to assist in proper diagnoses by those professionals in a timely manner. The increasing number of known diseases, syndromes, drug side effects, drug interactions and possibly rapid spread of contagions as a result of rapid movement of people and cargo throughout the world has created mass volumes of information which may be unwieldy to utilize when there is time pressure to make a medical decision.
While only a qualified medical professional may make an actual diagnosis using human judgment and intuition, timely and cost effective research tools are needed to assist these medical professionals as accurately and quickly as possible.